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Dental Office Sees Changes

NEW BREMEN — At the beginning of the new year, the village of New Bremen saw a change in ownership in one of its dental offices.

The purchase of Dr. Ronald Riebel’s dental practice by Risolvato Dental Group will mean an increase in dental technology for patients, old and new. Erik Risolvato, doctor and owner of Risolvato Dental Group which includes Lima Dental Associates, Spencerville Dental Associates, Lima Community Dental Associates and New Bremen Dental Associates, said he is excited to share the technology that has been around in his office in Lima for some time with the people of New Bremen.

The New Bremen office will soon acquire a 3-D X-ray machine and the technology to allow for one-day, same-day crowns.

The 3-D X-ray machine opens up doors for several advanced procedures, Risolvato said.

“(It will) allow us to diagnose sinus issues and bone cancers and all kinds of other things a lot better,” he said. “This technology has been in dentistry now for maybe about eight or 10 years, but it’s been very slow to be adopted because it’s very expensive. It’s the single most expensive piece of equipment that a dentist can buy. In the country there might only be about 5,000 of these 3-D machines in dental offices.”

The machines are becoming more and more common in dentist offices nationwide, Risolvato said. They will allow for diagnoses of tooth infections caused by fluid from the infected tooth leaking into the sinus cavity, but that patients may believe to be sinus infections.

The 3-D X-ray machine will also help dentists in the New Bremen office to see patients’ sinus cavities in order to replace teeth in the back of the mouth.

“Sometimes when people lose their teeth in the very back of their mouth, on the top and you want to replace the dental implant in the mouth, well, sometimes, there’s not enough bone in the back and the implant has to go into the sinus,” Risolvato said.

“In order to do that, we like to be able to see the sinus because we will open up the sinus, we’ll make a hole in the sinus, and we will put bone in the sinus ... Basically we’re adding more jaw into the sinus area.”

A machine of all trades, it can also be used to treat obstructive sleep apnea.

“(This is when) you stop breathing,” Risolvato said. “The tongue or middle of throat collapses on itself, and it shuts off your airway and you stop breathing. Some people stop breathing about every 30 seconds, and they won’t breathe for maybe 10 or 30 seconds ... What we do is we make a mouthpiece that moves the lower jaw forward and that opens the airway up and allows people to breathe.”

Risolvato Dental Group will also be bringing technology to give patients one-day, same-day crown surgeries. This procedure is usually a two-week process, where a patient comes in needing a crown (a cap or cover that goes on top of a tooth), the dentist drills a hole in their tooth, takes a mold for the crown, and waits to have it sent back from a laboratory.

“We have technology that, when we cut the crown, we have a machine that can take a computer image of the tooth, and we can make the crown while the patient is in the chair,” Risolvato said. “So it gets done that day and they don’t have to leave and go away. Now we don’t have that technology down in the office yet ... We have it up here in Lima and we’re just trying to figure out how we’re going to get it down there.”

The building where Risolvato’s new office will be is owned by Crown Manufacturing Company, and Dr. Riebel is still practicing there, he said.

“Our doctors will be coming in and rotating through until we find somebody who can permanently stay in the area,” Risolvato said.

“We will be bringing down some of these technologies. We can’t transport the 3-D X-ray machine yet. But we will also be bringing people up from New Bremen to Lima to help serve them here when necessary.”

The purchase took a total of approximately five months to piece together, and went through on the first of the new year.

One important point Risolvato wanted to emphasize to is that Dr. Riebel’s practice will not close down, despite some rumors that have been circulating.

“His office is still open, it’s going to continue to be open,” Risolvato said. “The Crown Manufacturing company that’s leasing us the space is happy that we are there and they want us to be in that community long-term. We are there to serve the people, and we will be there for a long time.”